X-Com Effect
by PeliikGrahSol
Summary: The war is over, the invasion beaten back, and X-Com disbanded. The Commander and the remaining X-Com personnel unwilling to adhere to the council's orders takes matters into their own hand and looks towards the stars. Vigilo, Confido! A new take on the X-Com/Mass Effect crossover.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter one**

Alexander Beagle looked towards the heavens, through the metal roof of the Skyranger, and prayed. He was by no means a believing man but for some reason it always helped calm his fraying nerves. He had always been afraid of heights and knowing about the three highly-unstable elerium generators sitting above his head did not help, nor did his aerophobia. Over eighty-seven tactical operations and he had still not gotten used to it. Well over two hundred hours. It was a miracle that no one had ever figured it out, but instead they had mistaken his discomforted features to be hard set determination.

It was why he had gained his reputation of an ironclad, confident, and near invincible commander. It was a reputation he liked and vigorously maintained around his troops and personnel. It had given him the respect he needed to keep X-com on its feet. His soldiers did not question his command even when each and everyone of them knew he commanded them to die… respected but not loved, a fact he did not mind, it was probably why he managed to weather all the losses, all the pain. The fact that his own troops kept a professional distance from him was probably a godsend. After five years each dead face was simply a faceless ghost, he could not remember them, and to be honest he did not want to either.

The Skyranger shook as it hit an especially nasty turbulence, shacking Alexander out of his melancholy thoughts. But it was not much of a relief as it only reminded him how high up in the air he was and how much potential explosives was too close for comfort.

" _LZ's insight commander, going in for a landing._ " the 'ranger's pilot said over the comm.

'Thank god!' he whispered in relief, thankful that the VTOL's twin-engines drowned out his break of character.

"Understood, Ranger." He replied.

Alexander felt the Skyranger roll and pitch into a smooth and quick landing approach, again the feeling brought up old memories of the alien conflict.

Soon the 'ranger touched down with a metallic clank as its shock-absorbers stressed to its limits against the heavily armoured plane's weight. With practiced ease he unbuckled himself from his seat. The ramp detached with a low 'thunk' and cold air rushed inside as the air pressure equalized with the outside. The air condensed into a thick billowing mist as it met the 'ranger's own warm and pressurized air met the freezing one from outside.

The ramp lowered he looked out over his soldiers shoulders as they prepared to rush out to secure the landing zone. The ramp hit the ground and sparks flew as it scraped against the ground, the Skyranger still rolling with its own momentum. He heard the all to terrifying sound of plasma and green flashes, and hit both armoured flesh and the metal inside of the ranger with wet splashes, each hit sizzled uncomfortably similar to a fryer. Cries of pain was heard both through the air and through his headset as men and women burned alive from the inside out. Then one of those deadly green bolts filled his vision.

And time ground to a halt. This was it, he was as good as dead, not even Titan armour could withstand a full on plasma bolt face first, and he had none.

Then suddenly he felt a hand grab hold of his shoulder that pulled hard. His vision blurred as the brave and very stupid man shouldered the hit and then the world flashed into blinding hot pain.

"Commander?" Ranger softly said and equally gently shook his shoulder.

Alexander stared blinking at the pilot, confused for a moment before reality set in and the ghosts of the past vanished. He saw his own disturbed face reflected on the pilot's visor, his own disfigured face. He had John Shepard to thank for that. Not that he could compare what happened to the young assault officer. The bolt had unfortunately hit perfectly between the armoured plates of his heavyset armour. The only thing that held him together was the very armour that should have on any other day tanked the damage… but it was never designed to take hits from behind at that angle.

The man had died five days later. He lived up to his call-sign 'Hero'. Alexander on the other hand came out with mostly superficial damage. Over half his face was scared eerily similar to Two-face from the batman live action movie, just less symmetrical.

No one except probably Ranger, Bradford and Shen knew of his troubles.

"I'm fine." He answered the unasked question as he swept the hand off of him. He drew a deep breath before he set the little movable flesh he still had into a small scowl. A handful of his troopers came jogging towards them through the light dusting of snow that had yet to be cleaned away from the Antarctic ice.

Adjusting his greatcoat to fight the extreme cold he stepped of the craft. The Titan clad soldiers made a quick salute and shouldered their gauss rifles when they confirmed it was him.

With quick, wide, and confident steps Alexander made his way towards the lit camouflaged hangar.

Engineers and other X-com personnel was scrambling to clear enough space for the Skyranger. X-com had for all intents gone underground after the invasion, the council had successively cut X-Com's funding over the last three years when it became clear they were not needed anymore.

At first they had helped clean up the remaining UFO's still flying around, causing havoc. Then they refocused their effort on removing any remaining traces of Exalt cells still in operation. But for three whole years they, under command of the council, had started to disarm, dismantle and remove any traces of their own existence… or rather alter it.

And now nothing remained of the original HQ, it being caved in and completely destroyed just hours before.

It had crushed most of every one of his subordinates' wills. Many had thought that after the war they would all be hailed as heroes, that they would go down in history, but now…

Alexander shook his head as he entered the main elevator that would bring him down towards the Holo-globe, his escort and Ranger gave a salute as the elevator doors closed. Ranger would oversee that his baby would be properly taken care of.

Very few of his crew remained, most accepting the quiet resignation and the fat bribe the council gave them in return for their silence. It was hard to let Vahlen go together with most of the best and brightest minds of the time.

Those who stayed for the most part had nothing to return to, their homes and families gone, victims like most of them. Though a considerable number stayed because they simply wanted to; it had actually surprised him how many of his soldiers decided to remain behind, and almost everyone of the engineering crew had followed Shen's example and remained. He credited it towards them being young and adventurous. But now he knew they would remain loyal because of what they were currently working on.

The elevator pinged as it reached its destination. The doors slid apart to reveal the blue hologram showing Earth in all its glory.

"Welcome back, Commander." Bradford said, hands clasped behind at the small of his back. Bradford wasn't much for smiles and his demeanour was that of a commanding officer. He wore his title of XO on the sleeves of his shirt. He was a no nonsense kind of guy that, much like Alexander, kept himself from getting attached to his subordinates by radiating authority. The base assault had affected Bradford the most. The aliens had managed to do something they thought impossible if not inconceivable, the aliens had managed to infiltrate and control a large portion of the base's personnel, it almost ground the X-com project into the ground.

The man had since then never let down his guard, eying his subordinates with a cold suspicion, only the psi-supressed was excepted.

"Bradford," Alexander offered a nod in greeting to his XO, "Status report."

"All green, Commander. Shen has reported that project Starscape is nearing completion." He answered the inquiry and motioned the commander to follow towards the base access tunnel. It would take them deep underground towards Starscape's hangar. "Our research team think they have solved the Elerium issue."

"They have?" Alexander looked shocked, it was no small feat as his face, more or less, lacked the necessary muscles and tissue nowadays to form facial expressions.

Elerium had until now been a finite resource that was quickly dwindling more and more as the world struggled to research new areas of its use. All but a few test plasma weapons had been dismantled in hopes to preserve the little supply there were. But now it seemed X-com had achieved yet another ground breaking piece of revolutionary science.

"How far away are the completion of the necessary facilities, I want this tested and proofed for mass production." Alexander gave his rapt orders. He shook his head. It was too easy to slip into the old 'war mode'. What was the hurry? There were no more aliens on Earth's soil, no alien loving terrorists to stop and the world's nations had settled down as repairs had begun to set in and people had started to fall into a sense of normalcy.

"Shen has put his boys on clearing out space for it," Bradford's lips twitched into a smirk he struggled to supress, "the facilities are expected to be done in a week or two, if all goes to plan."

Alexander gave a grunt in confirmation as the tunnel lift finally slowed to a halt four levels below command level.

The big doors leading into project Starscape's hangar was huge to accommodate the equally huge materials and modules that was constantly shipped down from engineering to support the massive project.

Bradford lead the way pushing the doors apart to reveal the craft they had spent the last year building from scratch. The eerily UFO lookalike was huge, easily out sizing and out weighing any carrier class ship that had been in service prior to the invasion.

It had been Shen's idea to pool all resources they could skim of off X-Com's supplies as every single bit of alien alloy, elerium, flight computers. Heck even the UFO/fighter hybrids they had built had been scavenged and moved under the noses of the council. Even if they knew that Alexander had been stealing resources from them, they certainly did not care enough to stop him from doing so.

And with the idea of this super heavy carrier classed space craft the three of them put together the plan to move X-Com into space. They would take to the stars, explore it, map it and make it safe for when Earth finally took to the stars themselves. Who knew what awaited them up there, was there other alien collectives out there? One thing was for certain, whatever was out there it would never reach Earth again, it would never scar Earth's surface like the Ethereals had. Come hell come sunshine.

Vigilo, Confido!


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Ah, Commander," Shen greeted when he noticed Alexander and Bradford enter the Starscape's command bridge, "Bradford, I was wondering when you two would show up!"

Shen rose from his seat in front of a console. Indecipherable text was flashing before the screen in a constant stream of data. Alexander could make neither heads nor tails of it. His bionic right eye strained to take in the rest of the crafts main command bridge: The familiar holo-globe machine sat in the centre of the room, offline. Two rows of consoles and terminals surrounded the large holographic machine. At the entrance of the room, from the same direction he and Bradford had entered from, was taken up by a large empty raised space, a small row of inactive screens lined the railing that, Alexander assumed, would stop whoever stood there from falling down and off the platform and onto something or someone bellow.

Other than that the room looked like the bases command room only difference was the natural blue-purple shade of alien alloy.

"Hello to you too," Alexander greeted, "I head from Bradford here that out think the Starscape will be fly worthy soon."

Shen smiled and let out a chuckled.

"Yes, my boys and I believe we can, if we have to, get her flying, if however we can get a hold of some more elerium. Of course if the research team's right, well, we will have enough sooner or later."

Alexander could only nod to that. Bradford however was not too convinced.

"Aren't we celebrating a bit too early, we are two weeks away before we can even confirm if this hadron collider will even work." He crossed his arms.

"It is more of a matter converter, but yes," Shen admitted, "it still remains to be seen."

The three exchanged a few more words before Shen had to return to 'calibrate' the craft's operating system. Bradford returned to the command centre to oversee the night workers. He was controlling like that, he liked to micromanage.

Alexander retreated to his own office, a small little room, large enough to fit his desk, his chair, and a bed.

The commander hung his coat over the chairs backrest before lowering himself down on it. He shut down his bionic eye and removed it from his eye socket, he shivered uncomfortably when the eye popped out with a slick wet noise. With practiced fingers he removed the cord and rolled it back in. This was his daily ritual, it was impossible for him to sleep with it still connected to his brain.

He wiped his hand and eye on a small handkerchief before dispositioning the eye in a small container he always kept in his pocket, not much bigger than a zip lighter.

He shut his remaining eye and sighed. Three years of planning, of preparations, recruitments… it was at times like this he wished the aliens was still invading, back then it had been simple. When there still were easily defined enemies, targets; when there simply were no time to contemplate life's twists and turns, to regret…

He grimaced as he felt anger bubble up when unwanted memories nestled themselves into his consciousness. The pain he felt when damaged and badly healed muscles strained under his scared skin.

He reached down for his desks second drawer and extracted a bottle of morphine pills. He'd need their help tonight.

* * *

"Commander, the matter converter has been constructed." Bradford called over the base comm. For the past week and a half he had kept Alexander updated on the base's comings and goings. It was just like old times, only without aliens. It actually surprised him how much he had missed the old rituals.

He put down the datapad he had been studying, going over the list of potential new recruits was a time consuming and ultimately mind numbing ordeal.

Without wasting much more time he made his way down to the tunnel lift, and as usual Bradford was waiting for him. Together they went down to the new chamber.

When they arrived Dr. Markwell, their new head of research, greeted them, and beside him stood Shen. The old man was probably the one that was the most excited. In fact the man was almost bouncing were he stood, as excited like a kid on Christmas Alexander noted. _Looks promising,_ he thought.

"The machine works I take'?" Alexander asked the pair. Markwell was harder to read than Shen was as Alexander had yet to become familiar with the man; his face was harder to read than most others he had in his employ.

"It looks that way," Markwell said in a voice that did not betray any feelings over the apparent success on his part. It was not the first time Alexander suspected something was wrong with the man, but he could deal with a few damaged minds under his command; the scientist had yet to disappoint him and he was a great project leader that easily filled the shoes Dr. Vahlen had left. ", Initial tests do indicate that the prototype is fully functional and is preforming within expectations."

Alexander looked at the scientist for a long silent moment before he turned a raised eyebrow towards Shen who caught is silent question with an amused smile.

"It's working Commander, though not as well as we initially hoped." The old engineer summarised, "It is more energy intensive than we ideally hoped, and one generator simply doesn't do the job."

"Let me get this straight," Bradford said, employing his usual swagger as he gesticulated in the air, "it is working, but for it to give more than it takes we would need more generators, am I right so far?"

"Yes." Shen shrugged and his excited demeanour bled away.

"Let me guess, we don't have enough elerium?"

Bradford frowned as he received a quiet nod from both head's from the R&D department. Alexander saw the wheels turn and churn in the man's head as he lost himself in thought. He ignored his XO, it was best to let him think as he tended to find incredibly good solutions. He knew, after all, most of X-Com's logistical and strategical information… it was kind of his job.

Alexander turned from Bradford to ask the two R&D officers the most vital question.

"How many?"

Shen pursed his lips and counted on his fingers, he frowned and turned to look at his more stoic counterpart. Markwell produced a small tablet out of one of his lab coat's many, and large pockets. After a few taps and squiggling with the touch-pen he looked up and said the number that made them all wince.

"Two hundred and forty E-Units." For such cruel words to pass over one man's lips in such an uncaring factual tone just felt wrong for the veterans. _Two hundred and forty… that was eight whole base classed generators_!

Bradford visibly paled. A paling Bradford was never a good sign and it could only mean one thing. They did not have enough.

"If we redirect the two we already got running to here..." Alexander unconsciously bit his lip out of habit; he only noticed after he bit too hard when he tasted could taste blood in his mouth. It distracted him only enough to curse his numb flesh.

"- We would still need another five." Shen lamented, "even if we took the Skyranger's we would only have enough for one."

"And that means we need three more, there is enough Elerium reserves to build one." Bradford added.

"But what about the rest?" Alexander asked, already dreading the only answer.

As luck had it Markwell delivered the bad news.

"We steal."

Bradford did not even exclaim in outrage, something he would have done only a few years prior to now, and going by the scowl he presented he did not like the thought.

"I don't like it." Was all he could bite out.

Alexander clapped Bradford sadly on the shoulder before turning his back on his head of staffs.

"What choice do we have?" Was the last thing he said before the doors slid closed behind him.

* * *

" _Packet is secure, moving to pick-up site_." The comm. crackled in Alexanders ear. The only positive thing about fighting his own species, he discovered, was how easy it actually was. The aliens had not been the most intelligent of enemies but the sheer diversity amongst them, numbers, and most of all superhuman toughness they employed had made his troopers jaded on just how much force was needed to pacify said aliens. What he had witnessed when they, for the first time, was deployed against normal humans could only have been described as 'overkill'. Heck even he was surprised as the agent who had savagely hit the helmeted guard hard enough to put a Thin man to sleep had dropped like a doll that lost its strings.

He and the rest of the squad had almost shouted in fear that _Instinct,_ his best Assault trooper had killed the man with sheer armour, and gene-mod induced strength. But luckily the man still breathed and had a pulse, though the slight bleeding that ran down the downed guards neck indicated a nasty concussion. None the less the rest of the Elerium retrieval mission had gone flawlessly.

Four of his soldiers, equipped in archangel suits had dropped into the military/research base at eleven kilometres up, gone in tranqed anyone they met… except the first one unfortunate one. Located the Elerium and was now jetpacking well out of sight for pick-up, two very large and no doubt heavy containers between them. The whole operation had taken no more than ten minutes.

They still had two more targets after this; hopefully they would have enough Elerium when all was said and done.

Instinct was still shaking, his hands was cupped between his knees as the shock of almost killing a fellow human, by accident no less, was definitely affecting the poor man.

* * *

 **A/N:** This was less word count than I intended but I wanted this chapter out for you guys to read instead of having to wait anymore (I have been tardy for almost two whole days reading 'A Cadmean Victory' I recommend it for anyone that likes Harry Potter fanfics.)

Hope you enjoyed, Read & Review.(It's mah' fuel)


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

" _It is yet unknown who the terrorists behind the recent attack is, many fear another Exalt but we have been reassured that so is not the case. The President will be holding FN meeting later this evening in how to deal with this new threat as-"_ Alexander shut off the TV screen. He held no illusions that the council, if they had not known before, sure as hell knew now that X-Com was still in operation.

He could only hope that their efforts were not in vain.

* * *

After two weeks of waiting they had proof that their actions had been justified. Shen and his engineers were in high spirits and it showed on Starscape. The beast of a craft had gone from a hollow shell into a fully functional space craft in only a few days. It even sported its own generator, one of the planned seven. Heck, even smaller interceptors were being built now that they had the Elerium to do it.

The Skyranger had been picked apart and reassembled in the hangar of Starscape. The crafts Holo-globe was functional and Bradford had wasted little time in moving in.

The research team was also in full swing as they were currently moving their equipment into it too.

He let a smile grace his still whole side. Soon, very soon they would be space borne.

He had managed to recruit twenty new troopers and another forty to help crew Starscape. For once the base felt lively again. The new faces helped elevate the boredom that their isolation brought. The old veterans boosted and bragged about their deeds, mesmerizing the newblood, and the new blood brought their own tales of the world outside.

Shen put the new hands to work almost as soon as they had entered which had further sped up construction.

Nothing but a full blown base assault could even hope to stop them now even then they could hold out for days.

" _Commander, you are needed on the bridge._ " Bradford interrupted his thoughts. Alexander sighed as he rose from his seat. He had yet to move into Starscape, his office still in construction. Bradford had unhelpfully adopted the sci-fi terminology. Alexander did not see how a space craft was even remotely a ship. It made no sense to use naval terms in space. Why not adopt a whole new branch of terms and names as the ancient civilizations did when they started traversing the seas?

* * *

"What is it, Bradford?" Alexander spoke as soon as the doors slid open.

"Commander, we have detected activity on the base scanners. I think the council has finally sniffed us out, sir."

Alexander frowned as he stared at the Holo-globe, the Antarctic being the only thing visible. Red lines crisscrossed the whole continent, except for the part were their base was hidden. Though it would be only a short time until that happened; Alexander could see the small dots that were slowly making their way further towards them. Tough the fact that they still flew in rigid grid patterns told him they still had a few hours until the planes would be upon them.

Alexander turned towards Bradford.

"Is Starscape ready for lift off?"

Bradford cupped his chin in one hand and stared silently at the floor; classic Bradford thinking pose.

"No, we need more power." Bradford finally said, "We could maybe strip the Matter Converter of its?"

"Do it. Tell Shen and his boys we are out of time." Alexander ordered before swinging around to march to his office. He got a few things he wanted to take with him that he simply could not let anyone else get their hands on.

Bradford gave his commander only a cursory glance before he raptly shouted orders to the people present. He let a smile pass his lips when he saw them jump into their position… just like old times.

* * *

" _Hello, Commander_." The screen in front of Alexander flickered on to show the hulking piece of meat that was the voice of the council, his visage still shadowed and unknown. His appearance made Alexander jump from his chair in shock.

" _While your past performances have been commendable, your recent activities have made us reconsider the X-Com project's continued existence. You are hereby relieved of duty, resistance will be met with deadly force… Consider yourself warned, Commander._

 _"We are always watching."_

The screen flickered out leaving Alexander with only his desktop screen to illuminate the room. That was all the confirmation he needed; the council had known about them from the start. He had to admit that they had a fantastic flair for dramatics. He looked at the screen one last time, at the faces, his last memories of his life from before.

Swallowing the last of his hesitation he activated the bases self-destruct. No lamps, no sirens, nothing would give it away. The only sign was that his screen shutdown. But he knew they had twenty minutes to reach Starscape before the numerous bombs would blow. Each databank, computer that held even the slight chance to reveal their plans and designs was rigged with plasma bombs, nothing within ten metres radius would survive, any circuit would melt, and any metal surface would become liquid. Nothing, not even chance could save anything worth more than its weight in raw material. He just hoped the council was smart enough to not send in ground forces into the base…

Without wasting anymore time he slung his coat over his shoulders and strode with fast determined gait. He lifted a hand to his bionic earpiece extending the microphone to his mouth.

"X-Com personnel, this is Commander Alexander Beagle, prepare for lift off… you got ten minutes."

His voice carried through the base like thunder as the myriad of speakers boomed out his order. Before he even reached the lift he heard footsteps, a lot of them, as both troopers, decked out in full battle garbs, engineers, scientists and maintenance crews made a beeline for the lift.

The veterans from the invasion took up defensive positions at all doors as the lift continually funnelled dozens at a time down to the lower levels. Most carrying a duffle bag of personal affections, like clothes, pictures and such.

After the lift left with its second group the whole base shook when a powerful explosion went off above their heads.

Alexander could only grimace at it. It never sat well with him to kill innocents when he could avoid it.

"Sir, you should take the next lift." Instinct said from the command door. He looked all the more intimidating in his titan-class armour than he could ever do in the archangel. The suits sheer weight made him into a walking battering ram, something the mutons came to learn to fear… if the aliens were even capable of feeling fear in the first place. It changed how X-Com fought as they had adopted a faster moving and close combat centric doctrine over time. Long ranged fire never really worked as well as a well-placed gauss rifle round at point-blank range. Only the mechs could bring powerful enough weaponry to bite through the muton's armour at safe distances. It was a sad fact that he only had four of his original ten mech-troopers and none of the armoured suits, every last scrap of alien alloy they could scavenge up had gone towards the Starscape project.

It would take months to synthesize enough meld to recreate even one of those suits, even more irritating was the lack of the alloy. It required a substance that not even his scientists was able to discern.

"Keep casualties to a minimum," Alexander commanded to the groups of soldiers, "within thirteen minutes the base will blow… I hope I do not need to tell you I want you all alive on-board Starscape before that."

He stepped onto the lift's platform together with the last of the stragglers, his troopers all giving him a solid "Yes, sir!"

The lift descended but before he was even half way down another explosion rang through the base, to roof at the top of the lift brightened and smoke billowed inside, the sharp cracks of gunshots echoed down the tunnel as his troops exchanged fire with the council soldiers.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

* * *

"Everything's set, Commander." Bradford said over his shoulder, one hand covering his ear to hear better over the comm. Dozens of excited voices made the command room loud, it was not loud enough to force either Bradford or Alexander himself the need to shout, but you could easily miss a word or two if you were not concentrating. "Shen is reporting all green, Markwell has confirmed everyone is on-board… except for alpha squad."

Checking his wristwatch told Alexander it was only four minutes left until the bombs would blow. That would cut it close, too close if he had any say in the matter.

"Alpha squad, situation report, stat." He said through his own built in comm. unit.

The comm. made a scrambling sound as it made a connection.

"Commander, we are pinned down, Highway's down!" the voice of Stacks shouted, trying to make herself heard over the background noise, "The bastards brought a fucking plasma rifle!"

"You are out of time, either run the fire or be buried when the bombs go off." Alexander ordered firmly, his voice raised just enough to not be drowned out by the exchange of fire. "Put a hole through the rifleman and make for the lift," he glanced at his watch again, "you got two and a half minutes."

Alexander cut the channel, his hand fell from his former ear and he clasped them together behind his back.

It was new, and slightly odd to actually stand in the actual command centre for once during what could in any other situation be called a mission, no whining jet engines, no flashing red lights… roomy too… He only wished he had had a proper screen to connect to his troops video feeds, but he didn't and he would make it a priority to make one available… he looked at the holo-globe, maybe he could make Markwell fix something up for it. Maybe adding some extra equipment to his troops to make a 3D map and link that information to the holo-projector somehow, it was an interesting idea and he made a note to suggest it to him when all this was over.

"Three minutes remaining." Bradford mumbled, Alexander could see the trickle of nervous sweat on his XO's face.

With a calm that only experience could give, Alexander looked out over the command room. Comm. officers shouting out communication, engineers huddling over consoles, tapping furiously, doing their best to make Starscape ready for lift off.

"Two minutes." Bradford gripped the railing in front of him, hard enough to whiten his knuckles.

' _Come on, Alpha. Come on, we can't afford to lose you_.' Alexander wasn't left unaffected, his right foot tapping in synch with the clock. Distracting himself by counting down the time.

Then with seconds to spare his comm. unit crackled. With a withheld sigh of relief Alpha squad reported in.

The two command officers gave each other a look, and shared a nod.

"Xcom, thirty seconds to base self-destruct!" Bradford nearly shouted through the comm.

The comm. network went wild as dozens of surprised outcries was heard over it. None of the voices Alexander could distinguish sounded familiar. ' _Some must not have read the fine print_.' He silently mused, but a cruel side of him relished in the panic he had a hand in creating.

His thought was cut short when the world around him shook.

* * *

The council sat in silence as they watched billions of invested money go up in smoke. Each of their faces carrying a grave expression.

"We shouldn't have left control of Xcom to Beagle." One of them spoke up.

"Agreed."

"But, nothing in his psychological profile suggested him being capable of… this."

"People change, it is unfortunate he became a ticking time bomb."

"It is time we focus our efforts elsewhere. How is your country holding up, South Africa?"

"Good, good. We have just about rebuilt, it is going to be to take years to replace all the lives lost-"

As Xcom was written of the records, no one was there to take notice that, in fact, Xcom was far from gone.

* * *

"You alright, Commander?" Bradford asked, just a hint of worry leaking into his voice, as he grasped Alexanders outstretched arm, and hefted him back onto his feet. Starscape was for all intents listing. He and a few unlucky others, had been thrown off their feet when the hangar collapsed under the pressure of the explosions, and made the entire structure tilt near twenty degrees.

"Quite alright, thanks." He responded and dusted his coat off. "How is the craft holding up?"

"Nothing we can't repair. Shen says everything should still work to get us safely into orbit."

Alexander eyed his XO for a second before he gave a nod, "Good, how's the crew?"

"A few bruises as far as I know, everyone has checked in so we are all good to go… Should I give the command?" Bradford finished after a short pause.

Alexander just shook his head, "No, let us wait for a while longer. If we fly now we won't make it out unscathed." He carefully made his way towards the bridge's main door, his mind struggling to compensate for the incline. It was funny how the brain worked at times, the room looked like it was level, which obviously it was not, forcing him to put a steadying hand on the nearest wall to keep him from ploughing his face into it.

"As you say, Commander." Bradford said to Beagle's retreating back.

* * *

Alexander found his wayward alpha squad exhausted and more than a little shaken after the close call. Propped against a wall was the brown armoured Highway, his left shoulder a melted mess, the joint fused. With his experienced eyes he knew the armour was also fused to the man's skin. Titan armour was strong, durable, and nigh indestructible… against conventional weapons. It was not as good against the superheat off of plasma. Direct hits from plasma weaponry usually still resulted in second and third degree burns. Highway would make it through with nothing more than a big souvenir in the form of a scar and twenty to thirty days leave from active duty.

"Can you walk?" He spoke up after a minute of silence, directing his question towards the injured soldier.

"Yeah, Commander," came the strained reply, "I… can walk."

Alexander where impressed by the man's endurance as he stood up on his own, his left arm stuck in an odd angle. Eagle-Eye was quick at his side, looping the stalwart Highway's arm over his shoulders with little effort. Alexander had also felt the tug to help, but he knew full well that the Titan covered arm weighted easily as much as he did, he was not interested in finding out what would happen to him if Highway would lose his legs. Images of pasted, mashed, and crushed foods came to mind.

He shook the thoughts from his mind and led his soldiers deeper into Starscape.

* * *

It was as he had thought. Highway was forced off active duty… not that there was much of it down inside Starscape. Alexander found himself inside his considerable smaller office, enjoying the good fortune that was the craft's current angle. His office chair was fixed to the floor, at the perfect ergonomic distance, and while the chair was padded in fake leather it offered no more comforts. The backrest could not be adjusted, but with the current angle of Starscape it had been perfect for a nap. He lifted his arm in the lowlight he had set the room too for his impromptu nap, and threw an eye at his wristwatch.

22:43 said the dimly glowing numbers. Four hours since the raid. It was as good a time as any to get the show going, Shen and his boys should have been able to repair whatever was important by now.

With practiced ease he took out the little eye-box, emptied the content into his waiting hand, plugged in the cords and with a uncomfortable squeeze he popped the rubbery eye into his empty socket. He stood up, sweeping his coat on around his shoulders, and made way towards the command centre.

The door slid open to reveal the fully staffed room full of activity. On the command platform stood his two friends, Bradford where he'd left him, and Shen talking in a private tone. Both of them saw Alexander arrive.

"Ah, Commander, we were just about to call." Shen smiled, letting some reserved excitement shine on his face. This was going to be the first true test of his engineering, his priced project. Shen – the first man to design and build a non-rocket propelled spacecraft. The Alien tech shared a lot of similarities with star wars' repulsor engines. While the main 'thrusters', if one was generous in calling them that, used some sort of particle exhaust, Alexander did not really know what to call it, to him they looked like some sort of jet-engine that shot small jets of red-white flames when in use.

"Then I can presume Starscape is ready?" Alexander spoke to shen.

"Yes, I believe so." Came the answer.

Alexander nodded to Bradford, said man was already turning, hand pressing down on his earpiece.

"Attention Xcom, prepare for lift-off. Please hold onto something solid and bolted down. I repeat, prepare for lift-off!"

Immediately the room quieted as the command room's staff all turned their attention towards the three leaders in the room.

Shen smiled and walked down the room, instructing the new, and the old on what to do. Reminding the few who forgot what they needed to do to get Starscape up and running, and inspiring the other technicians to do better.

In no time at all a quiet whining hum could be heard, and Alexander could feel whatever it was turning on through the floor. Probably it was the engines or something turning on.

"Now, my boy, don't overdo it, slow and steady, we don't want to tilt the ship the other way now." Alexander saw Shen instructing the Helmsman, who was visibly sweating under the pressure to do a good job. Alexander didn't even know they had one, a detail that had gone under his nose, and he was glad to see that he hadn't needed to. At times he was eternally thankful that Xcom's self-sufficiency still held on even after they went underground. He wouldn't be surprised that the technicians drew sticks to determine who would get to play driver of the biggest human made vehicle through history.

Soon the ice above them gave way with a mighty crack, distant as it sounded, and the floor levelled out.

A round of cheers made its way around the room, as Shen clapped the younger man on the shoulder.

"The Armour is holding!" came a cry from across the room, the man was wearing the green jacket denoting him to be one of Shen's engineers. Another cheer went through the room at the announcement.

* * *

Johnathan Grosser, former X-Com operative, and leader for the hastily reformed extra-terrestrial combat unit. He thought they were done, that the alien threat was done, swept away and buried. Then out of nowhere, wearing the colours of XCom, Exalt had returned. Bastards and traitors, all of them.

It spoke a lot for how much power the council wielded, a week ago he had been contacted and offered the job to lead the Antarctic operation. Five dozen men and women went down into the rats hole and only twenty would make it out. He was amongst the first to rappel down the elevator shaft. It angered him to high heavens when a near perfect copy of the old beta site met him down there. Exalt operative wearing scavenged and stolen titan armour, with the X-Com emblem printed on their chests in pure mockery of what they had been, and meant to represent.

It had been simple and pure luck that he had survived the suicide bomb. He had thought it fishy when the enemy team had simply up and disappeared down the big main elevator shaft, and had ran for the entrance elevator as fast as his legs could. Only a dozen of his troops made it out before the bomb went off. Twenty more managed to crawl their way out after a few hours of digging.

The raid had been a disaster, there was no way else to say it, but at least Exalt was finally gone for good.

Or so they had believed.

When the ice broke it put a fear into them that they hadn't felt for over five years. All Grosser could do was stare when a good and proper UFO exploded from the Antarctic ice in a great shower of ice blocks and snow. Great thrumming shockwaves blasted from the craft through the empty land, throwing up more snow into a misty blizzard, that hammered against him and threw him off his feet and onto his back.

Bewildered and confused he could only gaze up, into the stars above in a daze. And watch as Exalt made their escape. His body went cold with dread… while he knew no one on earth would come to know about this… he would know. Suddenly earth did not feel as safe as it had… the aliens was still out there, and no one would be able to stop them, not now… not for good.


End file.
